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Hearing spotlights bill to boost Washington-grown food, help small farms and shift cannabis oversight

Legislative Review · March 3, 2026
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

House Bill 2616, described by sponsors as the "agriculturally resilient markets act," cleared its first hearing; it would expand state purchases of Washington-grown food, create emergency farm grants, fund cold-storage upgrades and move cannabis production oversight to the Department of Agriculture.

A wide-ranging agriculture bill cleared its first hearing Tuesday, with sponsors and industry representatives saying it would strengthen food security and shore up struggling family farms.

Christine Reeves, the bill's Democratic prime sponsor, told the House Consumer Protection and Business Committee that Washington has lost roughly 3,700 farms in the past five years and that regulatory burdens and market pressures are…

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